


The Hot Guy From Advertising

by KookiesnCrem676



Category: Aperture Tag - Fandom, Portal (Video Game), Portal Stories: Mel - Fandom
Genre: Alternate Universe, Cave Johnson is mentioned, Cave Jonson is still alive, Co-workers, GLaDOS and Caroline Co-exist, GLaDOS is mentioned, Human!Rainbow core, Human!Virgil, M/M, Nigel is Mentioned, Rainbow Core's name is Arthur, Virgil is a Funky Homosexual, mild language?, more characters to be added as the story continues
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-11
Updated: 2020-06-11
Packaged: 2021-03-04 04:20:53
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,659
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24657487
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KookiesnCrem676/pseuds/KookiesnCrem676
Summary: Virgil works for Aperture science as the "Head of Maintenance", his dream job for a nightmare company. Almost confined to the lower levels of the Enrichment Center, he barely talks to anyone in this place apart from Mel, the only other person who bothers to show up in his division, and Glitchy, a core who can't help but get himself hurt. He had no issues with the peace in his life, and preferred it. But there are some people who can't help but rile him up.
Relationships: Rainbow Core/Virgil
Comments: 1
Kudos: 25





	The Hot Guy From Advertising

**Author's Note:**

> Hi! This is my first fic so I hope you enjoy! If you catch problems, please tell me. This can be read as a stand alone 1st chapter, but I'm considering expanding on it. So please give me feedback, even though the fandom is totally dead.
> 
> Edit/Note: Rainbow Core's name in this fanfic is Arthur, I've also modified his occupation in Aperture.

“New eye, new handles, an oiling to get rid of the scraping noise, and maybe a new voice module too reading the damage report.” The mechanic tinkered away at the core on his desk, muttering the many adjustments that they needed. Every core that came to him for help was handled with such care, he’d be seeing them working around on the management rails after all, and it helped to be treated nicely. He re-tied his hair into the short man pony and got to work taking the small robot apart, making sure to keep track of battery life and pain receptors. 

“Sorry if this is a problem Mr. Virgil, I really don’t mean to get this hurt.” The timid core dubbed “Glitchy” said, looking down shamefully. This core arrived in his care more than others, maybe even more than the idiots who would try to bother him whenever he left the place. Virgil was treated like Bigfoot or the Loch ness monster, a new elusive person which the people up in the offices and testing tracks could bother. He sighed and smiled, placing the core on the Aperture Science Branded Personality Core Holder Mach 2.0, or the core holder. He’d been caught calling it what it was, a glorified fruit bowl, and he’d been docked a pay for a week along with a stern talking to and a lesson from whoever kept harassing Nigel about him abbreviating things, they were downright annoying.

“No problem glitchy, I can reassure you, I’m just doing my job.” Virgil says typing up a report whilst ignoring the growing number of incidents on file for this little core in the top right of the monitor. He grabs his citranium can that he swears is filling him with a form of sugar poison, takes a swig and stands up, throwing the blasted drink in the industrial trashcan of the warehouse. “I know you’re trying to remember what you’re doing here and all.”

“I know, but I can’t help but feel embarrassed. Everyone knows why they’re here, even the corrupted ones know. They’ve all been downgraded to extra helpers just like me, but it’s infuriating. I’ve even tried flying!” Glitchy vents, the voice module in his circuits pitching his voice sporadically. Virgil grabs the things off the shelf mindlessly having already memorized this bot’s parts and measurements, and is more intrigued on hearing about Glitchy’s most recent adventures. “3 others found me and almost threw me away!”

Virgil sat back down, adjusting his oily gloves and tightening the tied sleeves of his jump suit around his waist. He grabbed a flat-head screwdriver from off the wall mount and started to take apart the core in front of him. His hands, though covered in grime, flowed with as much practice and grace as a pianist to a grand piano. The soft chatter of the amnesiac robot filling the large room just enough to make it feel alive. Everything just as it usually is in Aperture, work your dream job for a hell hole company and hope that the pay is consistent for once while you sit at your desk and deal with the many colourful personalities that you swear you’ve never seen work a day in their employment here. 

But today had to be a little different.

A co-worker who he’d known for over half a year had shown up named Mel. She had dark burgundy hair and ruby red lipstick with spots of grime left on her hands and sleeves, her signature light-up-a-room smile still in place. She had originally been scouted to be a test subject but used her brain to see that this place is as sketchy as they come. However, instead of turning tail, she offered to be a maintenance worker, wanting a job after her Olympian dream didn’t work out. When Mel came on the team, Virgil was the only one who bothered to show up consistently, so he was the only other person who actually bothered to greet her and show her the basics. She picked up on the work quickly, like a natural who needed only a little guidance, no matter how much she insisted it was from Virgil’s help. She too hated how nobody acknowledged that their other co-workers never showed up, probably due to the fact that if something broke, it was usually thrown and replaced. Very few people even knew their way down to their branch in general.

The strange part of today is the distinct lack of “hello”s exchanged, but instead a conversation made her presence known. Virgil ducked down as far as he could, and continued working on his current assignment with Glitchy. Unlike Mel, he knew not to get tangled into other people’s conversations. Not to mention he wasn’t in the mood to talk to some character who would most certainly question his position’s necessity in the Enrichment Center, to which he would reply with “Buzz off then”.

“Virgil, I need to grab something from my locker. Entertain this guy will ya’?” Mel says quickly jogging over to the employee’s lockers. Virgil chuckled under his breath. “I’d be careful if I were you, one guy left a ham sandwich in his locker and the ants came, they ate it right up. The guy right next to you I think.” He shouts back to her, turning around to face her with a smile, knowing she’d be disgusted. A loud groan and a “Verdammt!” quickly following as she slammed her fist to the lockers.

“Ah, now where did I put that spare module for you Glitchy? I don’t think that broken voice modulator is helping you any.” Virgil asks the core as he spins his chair to the side and scans his desk. He was about to stand up and grab another when a hand tapped the back of his shoulder blade. He turned around confused to see a person offering the module he’d been looking for, smiling as if primed for an introduction.

“Well hello there dashing, my name is Arthur. I’m a friend of somebody who Mel owe’s a thing to, but I wouldn’t mind being yours as well. Does this happen to be the module you were looking for?” Arthur says, and Virgil couldn’t help but yelp. The slicked blonde hair and hetero-chromatic eyes, one green and the other blue, not to mention the fair complexion and baby face. The slightest hint of blush applied to each cheek, but not so much to be overbearing and he swore the man had lip gloss or chapstick on. The suit Arthur wore looked pressed and pristine, Virgil almost didn’t want to touch him in fear of getting filth onto them. The accents of his suit were a rainbow of all colours, so who knows how long it takes for him to wash it, not to mention his tie which also happened to be rainbow. 

“Um, Mr. Virgil. I think you should answer him sir.” Glitchy whispers and Virgil blinks a few times before he realizes that he had left the beautiful man waiting. He flushes and clears his throat, whipping his forehead with his arm. He felt a sudden wave of embarrassment at his tank-top attire and took a breath. This was definitely not on his agenda, so he figured he would do simple pleasantries if his mouth didn't betray him and ask way too many questions. Virgil wrote his death sentence by getting this job, this mess of an interaction was only another branch of it.

“Ahem, uh yeah, thanks. Uhm, I’m Virgil, Head of Maintenance, _notthatcaveevercarestotellmejackshit_.” Virgil mutters but soon smiles back and shakes Arthur’s hand. “Nice to uh, meet you.” They both stand there in silence, mulling over their next words. Eyes met eyes and their hands stayed clasped together for what felt like years, one party pleased with the outcome and the other trying to prevent himself from dying of embarrassment. Eventually a conversation was attempted.

“Did-””Wh-”

“Oh I’m sorry-”

“No, no, I shouldn’t-”

“You go first.”

“Right.” Arthur says “I believe I was offering you an object, but I don’t mind this.” He says with an attractive smile, Virgil drew his hand back as if it had been burned snatching the module along with it. Arthur dropped his hand hesitantly and laughed it off, Virgil doing the same as he turned to the core beside him. He quickly starts to pry the old module out to copy it’s coding to the new version. Trying to regain composure from his horrible introduction. The maintenance worker wishing that Mel would hurry so he didn't embarrass himself before this man any longer. 

“So uh, Where do you work? In-in the facility that is, obviously you work here.” Virgil says, kicking himself internally. He could feel the eyes of the god beside him and his demon of a co-worker on his head and wiped his fingers on his pants. Arthur chuckled and leaned against the workbench, crossing his legs and placing his hands in his lap. Glitchy could't help but look away from the new man, afraid of being slandered for his short comings. 

“I work in Marketing campaigns, one of the people who made the lemons thing a huge deal. What’s the project” Arthur responds looking at the core on Virgil’s desk, the core shying away more than he had before. A stone had sunk in his metaphorical stomach at the gaze, it had been a while since he had been cleaned and polished, and the eyes of a designer felt more like a glare from GLaDOS. Virgil copied the code, his eyes on the text and not the reflection in the monitor. No matter how close the text was to Arthur's reflection, he swears its all he's looking at, no matter how many errors he makes.

“Oh this is a core restoration of core #AXB_26335741, one of a kind since he was the only one created after a half-asleep idiot deleted blueprints. His A.I, at heart, deletes data at random,so his memory is quite patchy. He’s a backup helper, but works hard and he doesn’t remember his name, but he calls himself Glitchy. Me and Mel love the little guy.” Virgil says patting the core and Glitchy looking happier at the reassurance, even the personality spheres had simulated emotions. Arthur opened his mouth to comment but Mel had already come back with a case. It was sleek and white, with no Aperture logo on it, probably a personal project of some sort. Her and Arthur exchanged a few words before Arthur took his leave, giving a wink for Virgil to fluster and stutter over for good measure.

“Well, if anything, you entertained one person!” Mel says with a cheshire grin as she slumps in her spinning desk chair and turns on her monitor. Virgil groans and slumps his head in his hands, his face seemed as red as the viruses in Glitchy’s A.I. He slams on the keys in anger, each letter of code feeling less like progress and more of a sad excuse of a distraction. The final line felt more of a burden than a release as he plugs it back into Glitchy’s main body with a little work. 

“I’m soooo happy you’re amused at my expense.” Virgil says as he grabs the oil next to him to pour a dollop or two into the moving parts of the machine in front of him. Mel kicks against her desk to glide over to Virgil, bumping shoulders and nudging his arm with her elbow. As much as the mechanic loved Mel, he had to admit she loved to assume things. Especially things to do with feelings, like love.

“You agree don’t you Glitchy?” Mel says spinning the holder to face her and Glitchy looked like he had been caught de-encrypting blueprint files and sending them to Black Mesa, his optic-light shivering and his handles looking ready to fall off, again. Virgil sighs and lightly shoves her off him to stand up. He hurries over to a shelf he doesn’t usually visit and grabs a small container of new paint, polish and a brush for Glitchy, but Mel’s teasing seems to follow him everywhere he walks. 

“I fixed your voice modulator code, don’t make me break it now Glitchy!” Virgil shouts from the other side of the warehouse, hoping the words would get to him, but his actions didn’t show any power whatsoever. Mel continued to egg them on, Virgil becoming more exasperated as he painted Glitchy and polishing him down, Mel’s words bouncing around his brain box felt more like a murderous bird breaking its eggshell.

“For what it’s worth…” Glitchy says as he gets re-attached to the management rail out, Mel had already moved onto her main project of the day and Virgil’s fuse was on the verge of blowing, his agitated attitude at the moment compromising his efficiency. He turned to give the core his best smile and Glitchy shifted nervously, looking around and acting like he was confessing to murder or having a crush on Caroline, the CEO's assistant.

“I-uhh. I THINK YOU TWO WOULD BE CUTE TOGETHER!” Glitchy exclaims speeding down the management rail at a breakneck pace, screaming apologies behind him. Virgil almost screamed after him but figured he would rather power nap his problems away. Mel's jovial cheers and teases came back like a tidal wave to a small child standing on the coast of a story beach, it was hard to not give her any reactions. He clocks out to his office in the back corner of the warehouse and locks the door behind him, closing the blinds when Mel kept poking her face through and writing messages on his windows.

Virgil’s office was rather small and a little messy, but overall quite barren and lacking personality. A management rail had been installed that goes through his inner wall near his desk and over tall and mostly empty filing cabinets , as well as two windows that had blinds that could close. His cluttered desk was covered in papers that felt just as useless as they looked, just letters to his co-workers that they never cared to pick up and a multitude of styrofoam containers that he had brought lunch in every so often when he didn’t feel like cooking. He had a lounge area just in front of that with two grey L-shaped couches that held three striped pillows each, and a glass coffee table with a few stains and a blanket folded on top. In the corner left of the door sat a small coffee and tea station, depending on his mood. A small kettle and coffee machine sat on top of the desk with a cabinet filled to the brim with satchels of tea, coffee filters and honey sticks to chew on through the day.

Virgil pulled a filing cabinet open with enough force to shake the things on the table and grabbed a vinyl from the files, the outside paper casing without a blemish apart from the weathering on the edges of it. The vinyl record itself was frequently cleaned and brushed with the finest materials amazon and his wallet could offer. He strolled over to his gramophone and placed it in carefully, the familiar sounds soothing the crashing sea in his head to a smooth wave. Virgil plopped down on the couch right in front of the glass coffee table the old Head of Maintenance had left in a rush to leave this wretched company, and Virgil too shared the sentiment. He grabbed a stripped pillow and blanket on the table, snuggling into the arm of the couch. 

“Arthur huh…” Virgil asks nobody in particular. Today’s events flashed in his mind and with a final huff, turned and closed his eyes. He wouldn’t entertain anyone with this, not even himself. The deep vocals of the music carried him off to a dreamless sleep.


End file.
